They come back from Japan without regret.
Figure skaters Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Nikolaj Sorensen had a colorful season, never half-hearted. It was for them the season of everything possible and they finished it at the top of their game, at the World Championships, with a table worthy of the greatest artists.
She was dressed in a black skirt split to highlight her left leg. A thin, floral fabric with long sleeves to cover the bust and hair in a bun. He wore a loose white shirt with the buttons caught between two long black lines, to match the color of the pants.
Like in a movie, they went from shadow to light when the curtains separating the hallway giving access to the cloakroom and the stairs were drawn. From focus to euphoria. From calm to excitement. From loneliness to ecstasy.
As they climbed the stairs to the frozen surface, there was their routine in their minds, their sequences, and the desire to come back down those steps feeling like they had left everything on the ice. There were also camera flashes and noise from the 18,000 people gathered inside the Saitama Super Arena. There are few places where the World Figure Skating Championships attract so many fans.
“The ton of people there was wow. It really created emotion before getting on the ice, “recalls Fournier Beaudry, during a meeting at the Complexe sportif Claude-Robillard, in Montreal, three days after their return.
They executed an almost flawless program. They were at the zenith. Their final free skate performance earned them 128.45 points. Their best mark of the season. When they received the result, Sorensen looked down in relief. Fournier Beaudry stamped on the ground with his skates, out of satisfaction. It ended in a kiss.
They eventually finished in fifth place.
“We are really, really, really very happy and proud of our performance,” said the Canadian-Danish skater, three times rather than once.
Sorensen is proud to have executed with care and detail the performance they had been working on all season on the most imposing stage in the world. These Worlds are the proof, according to him, of a clear improvement: “We really jumped four or five steps. And when you end your season at the World Championships with your two best performances of the season, it really feels good, it’s huge. »
Last year at Worlds they finished ninth. Jumping four positions in a sport where it is extremely difficult to progress is therefore a feat in itself. However, “we were hoping for better. We were hoping for a podium,” said Sorensen.
“Our goal this season was to make a podium at the World Championships,” adds Fournier Beaudry.
In a long interview in January, Sorensen, 34, and Fournier Beaudry, 30, revealed to La Presse that they thought about stopping everything during the off-season. If they came back, it’s to win. Not to play extras.
All season, they have fulfilled their own expectations in terms of results. They were crowned Canadian champions. They finished second in the Four Continents Championship. Then they won the Sapporo Grand Prix in Japan. Their season-ending result disappointed them a bit, but it’s impossible for them to regret anything.
“When you leave everything on the ice, that you can’t do anything better, it’s like we won,” Sorensen recalls.
The next Worlds will take place in Montreal, in 2024. Even though their season is over, the skaters will return to the drawing board in the coming days. On the one hand to choose the music for the next campaign, then to set up the program which will allow them, they hope, to realize their big dream: to become world champions. After the emotions of the past few months, the duo believe they are on the right track.
“Our goal is always to win. Our season proves to us that the work we have done so far is working,” concludes Fournier Beaudry.